Biological

How to spell biological

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce biological

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does biological mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to living organisms or to the science that studies them.

Biological in a sentence

• The lab analysed the biological samples for traces of bacteria.

• She studied the biological effects of the new drug on the heart.

Where does biological come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built from two Greek elements: bios, meaning 'life', and logos, meaning 'word', 'account', or 'study'. The combined form 'biology' was coined in the early nineteenth century to name the systematic study of living things, appearing in German as Biologie and in French as biologie before settling into English around the 1810s. The adjective 'biological' followed naturally, adding the familiar -ical ending that English uses to turn a field of study into a describing word, just as 'logic' yields 'logical'. The bio- element is enormously productive and shows up across modern coinages such as 'biography' (the writing of a life), 'antibiotic' (against life, here meaning microbial life), and 'biome'. Because the spelling simply stacks recognisable pieces, the main trap is remembering the unstressed middle vowel in -log- and the single 'l' before the -ical ending rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• bio- (from Greek bios: life)
• log (from logos: study, account)
• -ical (adjective suffix)